The councillor whose sacking forced the city leader’s resignation has been cleared of all wrongdoing.
Cllr Stuart Rawlings was found innocent of any misdemeanours by a sub-committee of the City of York Council standards board.
He referred himself to the standards board after discovering a potential personal interest linked to the Local Plan.
On January 22 the then council leader Cllr David Carr, fired him from his post as education, children & young people portfolio holder – while publicly claiming Cllr Rawlings had “stepped down for personal reasons”.
After YorkMix broke that story, the Conservative Group ditched Cllr Carr as leader – and he has since resigned as council leader.
Standards process ‘weaponised’
Cllr Rawlings said he was “very pleased” at being cleared so quickly by the committee.
“I have always been adamant that I did nothing wrong and referred myself to the standards committee in the interests of transparency, openness, and to retain the trust of York residents.
“This result vindicates my self-referral and the comments I have made to the media since I was dismissed from the executive.”
Cllr Rawlings also criticised the way he had been treated, saying: “The standards process should be confidential and certainly not weaponised.
“It’s important that fellow councillors are not deterred from referring themselves if issues arise in future.”
He thanked everyone who has contacted me over the last six weeks for their support and good wishes.
An extraordinary meeting of City of York Council takes place on Thursday to vote for a new leader.